Basically, the family reunion consisted of moving large groups of people between food sources and tourist attractions, with the occasional detour back to the hotel.
(another busy day of bonding)On Sunday, after everyone got themselves to church (later if you were a slack local like my sisters and me), we converged on Eat First in Chinatown. This caused a bit of confusion, ala Abbott & Costello, since we all knew we would eat first. Duh. The entire Loo clan pretty much took up the entire restaurant. My table ordered Hong Kong noodles and baked pork ribs, both of which were excellent. And you could graze among the other tables, since there was plenty of food.
Next stop was the Spy Museum, which I had never seen before. Very cool and chock full of information, but trying a little hard to be Disney. Also, I didn't really like the serpentine layout, since you never knew how close you were to the end of the exhibit. Which was extra tricky, since everyone in the group moved at a different pace. So you were always feeling like the slow one, only to rush and pass 3 people. Apparently the West Coasters are more museum efficient/less geeky than us East Coasters. So they waited in the cafe as we absorbed a wealth of spy knowledge.
Taking a break from Chinese, we headed to Fuddruckers for burgers and shakes for dinner before enjoying the fine air conditioning at the Multiplex. While one cousin handed off tickets to Ratatouille, three of us conveniently hogged 17 seats. Appropriately, the movie was also about food, although not as much fun as some of the other Pixar movies. And at the end, I made my brother sit through the credits so we could cheer for Femgeek! (To say nothing of the fact that I am a credit-watcher, and my brother is incredibly patient with me.) After the movie, my siblings and I drove a cousin back to her hotel, and probably grossly traumatized her, simply by being ourselves and siblings (it's easy to forget that common-knowledge teasing is TMI to the normal people.)
(the Loo's preferred the Democratic side)Monday was a similar theme. We convened in the Cannon Building for a tour of the Capitol, courtesy of my uncle, who is super-knowledgeable on all things Capitol. One summer in high school, I worked in his office, so I had been on his tour. Which takes infinitely less time with only 2 people instead of 30. There were some fun photo ops (the Roaming Gnome goes to Washington, playing Chairman, etc), and lots of interesting anecdotes, but after nearly 5 hours, we still hadn't made it to the Senate side. Wisely we abandoned the House of Lords in favor of food (I think this is the longest we went without food all weekend). One group headed to the Pentagon, another to the Supreme Court. Some of us ended up at a Mexican place, which was appropriate, since I bailed after lunch to see the Frida Kahlo exhibit at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
(Very nice exhibit. Only 1 Kahlo work, but lots of interesting photographs. Sadly, not worth the price of admission.) It was nice to get some quiet time, even if it did involve walking in the blazing heat a distance a bit further than I originally estimated. Then again, I had alot of Chinese and milkshake to melt off.
Went home via an impressively empty Metro, where I carefully packed my Pee Wee's before enjoying some Bubba's BBQ at another family meal. Fortunately, this was an informal thing at someone's house. And it involved beer. Unfortunately, I had to catch the Delayed Plane, so I pretty much mauled my BBQ, took some photos and headed out.
(grazing over the BBQ pickin's)It was alot of fun to hang out with various cousins. Because of geography, I only see them once a year, if that. But we are all planning on the next gathering for next year's wedding. Time to start saving my pennies and grains of sanity now!
on the iPod: "Cite Tango" - Astor Piazzola (arranged by Gotan Project)
No comments:
Post a Comment